Couldn't complete OWD, distraught & lost all confidence

[iamrushman]

congratulation on a task well done.

 

[BlueTrin]

Congrats, well done on the start of your new adventure

 

[wnissen]

Don’t let this ruin your scuba, persevere, you are so close. For many the first open water dives are some of the worst, most stressful, unfun dives you will ever do. Get through this, and the fun begins. If you already paid and must finish with this shop insist on pool practice... they should allow it, perhaps with a buddy from class or maybe an instructor or dm, and then go do it in the pool, then do another open water dive to finish, with the instructor you liked if available.

I wanted to bring back this excellent post, especially now that you have your certification. Congratulations!

The secret of Open Water is that getting you comfortable at depth is the actual point of the course. It seems like the skills are the point, because that's what you have to check off to pass, but really you are mainly training yourself to be at ease in a difficult, even overwhelming situation. In reality, in 25 dives, I have never had to retrieve my regulator, share air, take off my kit, etc. Not that I will never do those things, and it's very important to know how. But my point is that an instructor not giving you the opportunity to get comfortable is really missing the majority of the training. I had lots of problems with equalization, vertigo, being scared, and I did not enjoy myself at all during Open Water. Frankly, it sucked.

But I was lucky enough to have an instructor (Eric Schaad, if you're out there, love you, man!) who encouraged me to take my time. Just 20 dives later, literally all the things that were hard about Open Water are no longer hard. I bet you will have a similar experience, Bee!

 

[bee123]

I wanted to bring back this excellent post, especially now that you have your certification. Congratulations!

The secret of Open Water is that getting you comfortable at depth is the actual point of the course. It seems like the skills are the point, because that's what you have to check off to pass, but really you are mainly training yourself to be at ease in a difficult, even overwhelming situation. In reality, in 25 dives, I have never had to retrieve my regulator, share air, take off my kit, etc. Not that I will never do those things, and it's very important to know how. But my point is that an instructor not giving you the opportunity to get comfortable is really missing the majority of the training. I had lots of problems with equalization, vertigo, being scared, and I did not enjoy myself at all during Open Water. Frankly, it sucked.

But I was lucky enough to have an instructor (Eric Schaad, if you're out there, love you, man!) who encouraged me to take my time. Just 20 dives later, literally all the things that were hard about Open Water are no longer hard. I bet you will have a similar experience, Bee!

Thank you! Yes, you are absolutely right. My initial experience was very stressful, it seemed that we rushed through each skill. This time, I took my time before starting on the skills, took a couple of breaths in and out just to settle down, and then I did it without any problems. My new instructor was so much more patient and calm, and I literally fed off that energy and everything went smoothly. I now hope to practice those skills when I go for fun dives.

 

[johndiver999]

That's great to hear. One of the most important lessons is to do the skills SLOOOWLY. Most of the skills themselves take only seconds to complete, so if you work super slowly and calmly, you may initially take an extra 1 or 2 seconds but it is infinitely easier and less stressful. Eventually, the skills might be accomplished a little faster, but nobody really cares.

 

[Efka76]

@bee123

by reading your story I understand that you are a sensitive person. Instructor yelling added a lot of additional stress to you as well you had a fear of not doing some skills correctly. This resulted in your initial failure. Big crowd of people, not comfortable gear added added up as well.

My suggestion to you would be to find a psychologically compatible instructor, i.e. calm person who is not yelling who is calming you and do one on one session. It is very important from beginning to get the right skills and feel comfortable in the water. I was very lucky when me an my wife did PADI OW training. Our instructor was nice young guy who fully accommodated to our needs. We were vacationing and had a small childe together with us and were not able to commit ourselves 12 h every day. Our training lasted 5 days, there were instructor and 2 of us only. We did our open dives with few other people from small boat, stress levels were really low. I am pretty sure that in such conditions you would have more successful training and would not have issues that you described here.

I would suggest you to calm down, spent some time discussing with different instructors and find your "own" instructor. Then everything will be really OK.

UPDATE: Congratulations with your certification! Only now I noted that you did it

 

[Neilwood]

@bee123 great job in passing.

The right instructor makes a huge difference.

Now get out and dive!

 

[gcarter]

UPDATE: Thank you all for the great advice, I ended up practicing the mask removal in a pool until I felt fully comfortable and then went with a different instructor & completed my certification without any problemsSo excited to go on fun dives now and improve my skills.

Congratulations!

 

[Nigel Bryant]

Sounds like you had a bit of a shabby outfit training you. When I did my OW (and to be honest every other course) my instructors have made it a priority to ensure all students are happy and as calm as they can be. Diving should be enjoyable and even the courses should be enjoyable.
You need to find a different dive school.

 

[TMHeimer]

I wanted to bring back this excellent post, especially now that you have your certification. Congratulations!

The secret of Open Water is that getting you comfortable at depth is the actual point of the course. It seems like the skills are the point, because that's what you have to check off to pass, but really you are mainly training yourself to be at ease in a difficult, even overwhelming situation. In reality, in 25 dives, I have never had to retrieve my regulator, share air, take off my kit, etc. Not that I will never do those things, and it's very important to know how. But my point is that an instructor not giving you the opportunity to get comfortable is really missing the majority of the training. I had lots of problems with equalization, vertigo, being scared, and I did not enjoy myself at all during Open Water. Frankly, it sucked.

But I was lucky enough to have an instructor (Eric Schaad, if you're out there, love you, man!) who encouraged me to take my time. Just 20 dives later, literally all the things that were hard about Open Water are no longer hard. I bet you will have a similar experience, Bee!

Good points. In over 700 dives I too haven't had to do those skills (and most others) yet in real life.
Regarding feeling rushed, it could be the instructor at fault, but it also could just be the schedule. Having assisted on a few "weekend" courses, I am glad I took the more drawn out way, and I was very comfortable in water to begin with.